Eight people have been charged with conspiring to work on China’s behalf in a plot involving threatening letters and the use of night vision goggles to surveil and coerce a Chinese family to return to their home country to face charges, according to a U.S. criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday. Five of the individuals charged, including an American private investigator hired to help spy on the family, were arrested on Wednesday in New Jersey, New York and California, while the rest are believed to be in China, top Justice Department officials said in a news conference. Its goal was to target Chinese nationals living in foreign countries and intimidate them into returning to China to face charges.
